Month: October 2014

#ELTchat is a group of ELT professionals discussing topics of interest every Wednesday at 12pm or 9pm on rotation. Every Saturday, one of the moderators puts up a blog post on the #ELTchat Blog asking teachers who follow #ELTchat to propose some topics for the next charts. #ELTchat followers can go to that post and suggest topics in the comments under the blog post. On Sunday evening, the moderators review the topics and create an online poll. #ELTchat followers are then invited to vote on the topics until Wednesday morning (eltchat.org)

#ELTchat is a group of ELT professionals discussing topics of interest every Wednesday at 12pm or 9pm on rotation. Every Saturday, one of the moderators puts up a blog post on the #ELTchat Blog asking teachers who follow #ELTchat to propose some topics for the next charts. #ELTchat followers can go to that post and suggest topics in the comments under the blog post. On Sunday evening, the moderators review the topics and create an online poll. #ELTchat followers are then invited to vote on the topics until Wednesday morning (eltchat.org)

This week’s topic, proposed by Sara Tilleman (@Saraginot), was “Flipped learning in English language classes – What is the best use of your face-to-face time in class?” The topic was not new to #ELTchat followers, therefore, Marisa Constantinides (@Marisa_C) had provided a link to the previous ELTchat’s summary, so as to turn this into a follow-up discussion. (The photo below has been taken from the Eltchat blog)

It was part of the senior seminar Dr. Harriet Zengos taught on Documentary Theatre at DEREE – The American College of Greece.

“Live and Let Live:” The Destabilisation of Heteronormativity in Moises Kaufmann’s The Laramie Project.

By Angelos Bollas

Moises Kaufmann’s The Laramie Project dramatises the aftermath of university student, Matthew Shepard’s murder, focusing on the reaction of citizens of Laramie, Wyoming to their representation by the media. The media presented Laramie as a typical mid- Western US town where cowboys, violence, and brutality constitute its daily routine. Apart from the focus on mediation, The Laramie Project offers insight into the heteronormative-ly shaped mindset of Laramie, Wyoming. Critical responses to the play have largely focused on the social implications of Shepard’s murder, possible causes, lack of special legislation, and the depiction of mid-West American society; yet, none of them has focused on the heteronormative net, upon which society has been rooted. Kaufmann’s play does not attack Laramie for being reactionary. It exposes and questions the construction of the residents’ mindset that led two of “their own” to commit such a brutal crime. Through the use of documentary theatre’s devices, namely, selection and arrangement of interview material, Kaufmann reveals the irony behind the “live and let live” motto and the dominance of a heteronormative mindset that names non-exclusive desire for the opposite sex, deviant. Kaufmann also challenges the irony behind the “live and let live” philosophy through which Laramie residents did not distinguish tolerance from acceptance.

Critics such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Elizabeth Atkinson, Renee DePalma, and Samuel Chambers follow Judith Butler’s theory on the heteronormative matrix, arguing that heteronormativity is a political net upon which society sustains its maintenance. Some of them connect heteronormativity to feminism and patriarchy, while others to social class. The Laramie Project, though, manifests the dominance of heteronormativity upon the whole of society regardless of sexual orientation, gender, or social status. However, because society has always been more tolerant towards women who desired other women, than males who do the same, heteronormativity “attacks” males rather than females. In Between Men English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire, Eve Sedgwick makes clear that society’s reaction to male intimacy, even historically, different and less flexible than the reception of females who are attracted to other females (2-5). Thus, the application of heteronormativity as a social force that shapes human thoughts and actions, almost exclusively affects males rather than females who are attracted to the same sex.

About Me

Angelos Bollas (MA in ELT) completed his CELTA and Delta at CELT Athens in 2014. As of July 2016, he is an approved CELTA Tutor. Other than teaching and training, he enjoys being a member of IATEFL Conference Committee, participates in and co-moderates #ELTchat weekly discussions on Twitter, and presents in various conferences around the world. He is a PhD candidate at Leeds Beckett University researching the effects of heteronormativity on LGBTQ students' motivation.